Before the Sunday of the Melbourne Zeppelin concert, everyone was thinking that per¬haps outdoor venues weren't that good — mainly because there was a possibility of a repeat performance of the three inches of rain in half an hour.

The day itself was good, relatively clear skies and even sun. The promoter’s sigh of relief could be heard all over Melbourne.

By 2 o'clock, over half the stadium was full and there was a steady stream of cars and people arriving. By 3 o'clock the place was packed, and the crowd was wondering what was going to happen, because no one was announcing anything - where the hell was Zeppelin. Five minutes past three and on they walked, it took the crowd a second or two to realise they were coming on to play unannounced.

"Good afternoon" said Plant, and the crowd roared back "I can't hear you", so 'the reply came louder, and then Jimmy Page started into the first number. They started off with recent album numbers like Black Dog, trying to get instant build-up. Unfortunately, the acoustics of the stadium were against them and the wind blowing over the stage threw a lot of the sound out into the street to the crowd ("Why don't you come in?' — Plant)

Towards the end of their acoustic set. Zeppelin had the sound licked, and from then there was nothing but buildup. Page's guitar work became fault less, as he strutted and walked around the stage and for some reason, reminded me of Chuck Berry, when he used to goose walk across stage, with his guitar slung low.

Jimmy Page also changed guitars regularly for almost every number, now electric, now acoustic and for one number a double necked job with one neck six string, and one neck twelve string. John Bonham and John Paul Jones must also rate mentions as far as the music goes, because they were an integral part of the sound. Page and Plant, however, dominate the visual thing, so it's these two you remember when you leave. I must mention the groups acoustic set, which is unlike the Zeppelin I expected to hear and therefore came as a pleasant surprise.

By the time the acoustic set was finished, the place was packed, at least 13,000 to 14,000 people, with all the aisles packed with people who couldn't get a seat. Until the sound problem was overcome, the crowd was inatten¬tive, and along with the acoustics echo there was a general murmur from people talking In fact, Plant told the crowd twice to shut up.

By halfway through the two hours the group played, the audience was hooked, and by the end of the concert when you looked around all you saw was a moving sea of bodies, and bodies lumping up and down against the sky. Plant kept up a continual banter between numbers. commenting on everything from the weather to what individual people were doing in the audience (yeah, you).

The group stopped playing for about ten minutes towards the end of the concert when it started to rain lightly, but they came back on promising to go off again at the first shock (or up in smoke more like it).

The last two numbers after this break were probably the best of the day, with the wind coming up adding another aspect to Zeppelin's driving music and to Plant's antics in his skin-tight jeans.

Before the Sunday of the Melbourne Zeppelin concert, everyone was thinking that per¬haps outdoor venues weren't that good — mainly because there was a possibility of a repeat performance of the three inches of rain in half an hour.

The day itself was good, relatively clear skies and even sun. The promoter’s sigh of relief could be heard all over Melbourne.

By 2 o'clock, over half the stadium was full and there was a steady stream of cars and people arriving. By 3 o'clock the place was packed, and the crowd was wondering what was going to happen, because no one was announcing anything - where the hell was Zeppelin. Five minutes past three and on they walked, it took the crowd a second or two to realise they were coming on to play unannounced.

"Good afternoon" said Plant, and the crowd roared back "I can't hear you", so 'the reply came louder, and then Jimmy Page started into the first number. They started off with recent album numbers like Black Dog, trying to get instant build-up. Unfortunately, the acoustics of the stadium were against them and the wind blowing over the stage threw a lot of the sound out into the street to the crowd ("Why don't you come in?' — Plant)

Towards the end of their acoustic set. Zeppelin had the sound licked, and from then there was nothing but buildup. Page's guitar work became fault less, as he strutted and walked around the stage and for some reason, reminded me of Chuck Berry, when he used to goose walk across stage, with his guitar slung low.

Jimmy Page also changed guitars regularly for almost every number, now electric, now acoustic and for one number a double necked job with one neck six string, and one neck twelve string. John Bonham and John Paul Jones must also rate mentions as far as the music goes, because they were an integral part of the sound. Page and Plant, however, dominate the visual thing, so it's these two you remember when you leave. I must mention the groups acoustic set, which is unlike the Zeppelin I expected to hear and therefore came as a pleasant surprise.

By the time the acoustic set was finished, the place was packed, at least 13,000 to 14,000 people, with all the aisles packed with people who couldn't get a seat. Until the sound problem was overcome, the crowd was inatten¬tive, and along with the acoustics echo there was a general murmur from people talking In fact, Plant told the crowd twice to shut up.

By halfway through the two hours the group played, the audience was hooked, and by the end of the concert when you looked around all you saw was a moving sea of bodies, and bodies lumping up and down against the sky. Plant kept up a continual banter between numbers. commenting on everything from the weather to what individual people were doing in the audience (yeah, you).

The group stopped playing for about ten minutes towards the end of the concert when it started to rain lightly, but they came back on promising to go off again at the first shock (or up in smoke more like it).

The last two numbers after this break were probably the best of the day, with the wind coming up adding another aspect to Zeppelin's driving music and to Plant's antics in his skin-tight jeans.

Comments

It was 40 years ago today I saw Led Zeppelin at Kooyong in Melbourne. I barely remember the band as it was my first experience of cannabis as well :-) I do remember we got in for free by crawling under a chain mesh fence. Thanks for the memories.

Couldn't afford tickets but was one of the many that was able to get in over the security fence.
What a concert.Was blown away by the bow work of Jimmy Page, the voice of Plant, metranomic drumming of Bonzo and the bass lines of JPJ. Didn't even know it was raining at the end.

One of my first concerts. I was 15. We actually had tickets but went over/through the fence like so many others. I so remember Robert Plant's hair blowing in the wind. I think I have that "Age" newspaper from the concert. You can see my girlfriend running in, in the article. I feel so lucky to have seen them. It was the best outdoor concert with that music.

When I was 17 friends and I went to LZs
Concert at Kooyong, we were such fans
we stayed overnite at the stadium, the
next day a truck with the bands gear
stopped outside on Glenferrie rd. We
offered to help the Roadies unload the
equipment. I was handed Jimmys
Double Neck Gibson guitar which I
took onto the stage and after carefully
putting it down, I couldn't resist opening
the case and strumming the strings
with one of the picks, which I ended up
souveniering. A fantastic concert
even if the wind played havoc with the
sound

This was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. My teenage boys, who are into metal are very impressed that their Mum saw Led Zeppelin live! Somewhere I have a review of this concert from the local "The Age" newspaper. I'll see if I can find it and forward it on to you.

I have logded on hoping there may have been some footage of this concert. I live in Melbourne and as a 17yr old teenager at the time still remember going to Kooyong and seeing the mighty ZEP with 2 or 3 of my school friends. This concert was a full on hard rocking show. No flashy stage props just hard thumping music played with energy.I can remember we were spoilt during this period as the Stones and Black Sabbath also played Kooyong over this time. All Summer concerts outdoors and hot.Zep at their best and a lasting memory. Anyone else remembering the show please leave a comment.

I was there with two friends of mine, great concert and lots of memories. Came to late because of the traffic on Glenferrie Rd, tickets sold out. Nevertheless we were part of the gatecrashers and got in.
I am prepared to pay the outstanding debt of $ 4.50 per ticket on demand.

I was 16 and got there at 9.00am for the 3.00pm show. My friend and I were sitting out the front of the stadium - only four of us there - and the trucks rolled up with their gear. The roadies said to us, 'do you want to help carry in the stuff?" We did. I climbed into the truck, homed in on the six string case, opened it to see the Sunburst Les Paul, and pinched one of the grey Dunlop plectrums that Jimmy had sitting in the case. I carried the case into the stadium and rested it on the stage. We hung around inside the stadium until it was time to pick a seat. We selected our seats, four rows from the front, and the rest is sweet memory.

A great show! Robert's voice is unreal ... the scream he lets loose in Since I've Been Loving You is blood curdling, and the band's jams on Dazed And Confused and Whole Lotta Love are unreal! The acoustic set is wonderful, and the show is cut short by a rainstorm that develops suddenly over this outdoor venue. "Well, it's started to rain, I think it's time we gotta go. If we don't go now, we're gonna die, I don't wanna know! sung Plant at the end of Dazed And Confused ... still, the great recording makes this one excellent.

When I was 5yo boy in 72 and when everyone used to go out of our Frankston house I would sneak into my brother's record collection and pull out only one particular record. I'd then sneak into my sister's room and get out her record player. I'd play that single whenever I got the chance. At that age I didn't really know Led Zeppelin or the global popularity of the Stairway to Heaven song then, but that's what I listened to. It captivated me. The 7" "Accoustically" single. It was only today 01/10/2010 that I found out it was played at Kooyong.

***As a side note: When my brother died in 1980, (aged 21), I inherited some/most of his records. That single was one of them. I also collected the rest of the Led Zeppelin vinyl LPs just so I could, I guess, emulate, feel, hear, my brother. In 2010 my sister (executor of my father's estate) sifted through my personal record collection that I had kept safely at my dad's house all those years and she lifted all my own Led Zeppelin records and even that old 7" single. I am currently having to fight, through a solicitor, to get them returned. !@#$%.***

The Kooyong show was my first international rock concert and I still remember how good it was. We got right up close to the stage as the storm clouds gathered overhead. My ears were ringing for days afterwards. Thanks for the memories

I was there almost 36 years ago and can recall every minute of the show and those swirling black clouds. These days I live nearby and often play tennis on one of the outside courts at Kooyong and occasionally gaze at the old stadium and remember that day long ago, and if I listen very carefully......

I was at this concert, and my perspective was very different. I was a 14-year-old runaway. And a Hugh Led Zeppelin fan.

Without the means to pay our way into the concert, I had formulated a plan with my friend Robbo to go over the fence if an opportunity presented itself.

We travelled by train to the stadium, no ticket of course, and fully of excitement.

We arrived early, and found a position to plan our fence-jump. Its amusing to know that many others turned up with the same idea. “We thought we were unique, considered ourselves the leading edge of rebellion, avant-garde rebels. Damn it, the old folks (in their late teens and early twenties) were already there.

The fence was a cyclone wire fence, perhaps 13 feet high, and if my memory serves me right, ran the length of the Glenferrie road entrance. Regardless of which boundary it was on (remember, its now 2014, some 42 years ago), back to the concert... We lost our nerve to jump the fence. On the other side their were pairs of police roaming the inside of the fence, and all the sporadic jumpers were caught before the could hide themselves in the crowd.

We keep our position, squashed against the fence by those behind us. The concert started, and the music was great, loud and clear from our position. The fence jumpers had dwindled in numbers, as it was obvious, you'd get caught, and the chances of regaining your prized fence positing, impossible.

I was having a great time, and those about us, seeing we were just kids (not the vanguard rebels with considered ourselves), were kinder to us, as they pressing in.

But I had this urge to scratch an itch, to see the great musicians. Hearing just wasn’t good enough. We could here Plant going off at the crowd a couple of times, and wanted to see what it was all about.

It had just started to rain, and I turned to Robbo, and said "Robbo, we've gotta do it mate, we have to get in, lets take a chance". To this day the look on Robbo's face was priceless, as he formed a hugh grin, reached into his coat, and produced.. WIRE CUTTERS.... OMFG..... I couldn’t believe it. Goddamn wire cutters!, he had them all this time!.

Whilst genius enough for such forethought, Robbo lacked the courage to use the cutters, so he handed them to me.

There was so much going on, that no one seemed to notice me making one little snip at a time, from the bottom, slowly working my way up.

The fence seemingly stayed intact without separating from the wound I inflicted on it. I had cut a line in it as tall as our height. We were ready…. I pushed on the fence so Robbo could see the gap as it separated. OK, now what? We still need the courage to make our run, and we just didn’t have it.

But someone else saw the gap as I showed it to Robbo, and as we were standing there facing each other with that stupid "you first” look, we were push aside as someone else decided to take advantage of my work, and they crashed through the gap, and made their run. The cops were completely taken by surprised. They were relying on seeing the fence jumpers climb up the fence, and predicting the jump, were on to it before they could land. They just weren’t expecting this. Just about every cop went bolting in the direction the gap-crashers. They were almost into the crowds, and all the cops with them, so the next gap-crashers did the obvious, they crashed though and headed the other way, and then more headed in a different direction again. We stood there, stunned and remaining gutless avant-garde rebels, as the trickle of gap-crashers became a flood, and there was no hope for the cops to catch them all.

Encouraged by the gap-crashers successful distraction, the fence-climbers further along started their assent, their climb and drop, until their trickle also became a flood. The fence just couldn’t take the weight of the climbers, and over it went, slow and sure, leveling flat on the ground, and the other side a mess of people with no hope of the cops stopping them. The cops withdrew and fell back. They were defeated. And there we still were, standing on the outside of a flattened fence, and no one to stop us. We looked at each other, walked on and over the fence, stopped looked at each other again.... and bolted.

The music was great, the view was great, I could see my idols. And life was terrific for two gutless avant-garde rebel runaways.

I remember the crowd getting angry that we were pressing in, and think that Robert Plant stopped and said something meant for the cops to the effect of "just let them in", and then… we rocked.

If you want to judge the right or wrong of what we did, it matters not. This was rock and roll, this was idle mania, this was how it was, and in the mess and confusion of all it was, it was great. It was monumental. It was Led Zeppelin.

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